Any Tattoo-ed mommas?

malloryjk · September 2012

I'm a moderately/heavily tatted mommy-to-be..and as shallow as it may sound i am scared as hell as to what they are going to look like post-pregancy.

I (stupidly) had my hips tattooed..oh to be 18 and frivolous again.

Any other tattooed mommies out there? Any tips or tricks to keep the tattoos looking good? Did your tatt's successfully survive pregnancy?

blush64 · September 2012

I don't have any tattoos. I have a close relative who has many. She has a huge one covering her from just below her chest to her lower abdomen and around the back. It survived two pregnancies. She got a few stretch marks but it didn't really affect anything. I don't know of any tricks, as far as I know she just hoped for the best.

Beccabby · September 2012

My tatoos are on my shoulders and calves so Im not much help!

malloryjk · September 2012

*sigh* when I got them..i remember my mother and sister saying "those are going to look horrible when you have kids one day"...and in my teenage wisdom i replid "eww kids are disgusting..why would iever have kids"...

now i can only imagine my mother cackling "i told you so"

526SadieSadie · September 2012

No tattoos on me yet but a friend of mine is very heavily tatted and hers look fine post-baby but be fair-warned, your skin will react in its own unique way. You really can't gauge your body's reaction by anyone else's, including your mom and your sister - if neither of them got stretch marks that doesn't necessarily mean you won't.

I advise using cocoa butter liberally and hoping for the best!

RussianMommy · September 2012

I don't have any tatoos, but stretch marks are genetic and no amount of oil, lotion, or cream will prevent them.

Nickid1030 · September 2012

I have tattoos but none on body parts that will change with prenancy. But one of my really good friends has a tat on her stomach/side, during her pregnancy it got a little scary but she continued to lube that baby up and after she lost the weight (she lost all baby weight with in a month... a freak I know) it looked just as good as before!

Good luck!!

CarolineEmma · September 2012

my bfp was a huge surprise and I had actually gotten a Tattoo the day before I POAS. Thankfully it is healing really well but I felt really bad about it at first. That being said none of my tattoos are in places I expect to be affected by pregnancy and this is my first so I'm not much help.

Ana0927 · September 2012

I have a tattoo on my stomach and it did not change. My belly will never look the same but my tattoo in is tact go figure.

Rynleigh · September 2012

More than anything, I just recommend keeping them heavily moisturized. I don't have any in the belly/hip region - but both my tat artist and my piercer did with their kids. They said that even if you get away without stretch marks, the general stretching and tugging can really do a number on how clean the ink looks after pregnancy - they both said that lotions heavy in vitamin E were big ones they used. Theirs still look relatively slick, the sucky part is that when you *do* happen to get stretch marks, the tattoo could still look great, but the surrounding skin doesn't. My piercer actually ended up getting additional tats after her pregnancy to cover up the stretch marks she got.

zenmama3 · September 2012

I suppose you could say I have a few tattoos ( ok, both arms, the front of both calves and one thigh, oh and my whole back, and a small one on my shoulder ooo and one on the back of my neck ) However these were all done after my first three baby's we shall see how they look after this little bean. Also Yay for tattooed mama's!

ShaunaSmith79 · September 2012

I am very heavily tattooed with well over 100 hours of tattoo work on my body so far... sleeves, hands, chest, large leg pieces, shoulder tops and fronts, sides and back of neck, hip and an entire back piece that covers below my waistline and onto my sides as well. I cannot say what pregnancy stretchmarks do to tattoos because I am only 12 weeks 5 days, but I have lost and gained weight both very rapidly and gotten stretch marks from it. 95 percent of which are white and tattooed over and you never even notice unless youre me and you knew they were there.

LovestruckAJ · September 2012

I have a few tattoos, but the only one that would be of concern is the one on my hip. I think it will survive though, because my twin sister has a matching one in the same location & it wasn't affected by either of her 2 pregnancies. Smile

chitwngal2010 · September 2012

i have one right above my hip and it was stretched out with DD but it went back to normal, i used BIO Oil maybe that helped.

PansyPants · September 2012

I have a full tattoo on my stomach, a piece on/around my breasts and a couple others scattered around. My stomach actually didn't get as bad as I expected. I used Badger Balm to help minimize the external issues and also made sure to eat healthy fats (avocado, nuts) and drink tons of water.

Here's a quick picture I just took of how it looks 11 months postpartum and 8 weeks pregnant. Don't mind the scars from old piercings, the choices of youth

btw: yes I know my tattoo is awful, I was 19 and dumb like a lot of us were.

malloryjk · September 2012

oh wow youre all making me feel alot better! thank you!!!

I am leavbing work to go buy all the cocoa butter and vitamin that CVS has to offer!!

side note: are stretchmarks really genetic? I only have a sprinkle of them..(on like the side of my tush) from rapid growth spurts ...yes i was that awkward gawky 5'9 12 year old. But my mom and sister are pretty much in the clear as far as strecthmarks go. I'm hoping that as long as I gain weight gradually and eat healthy and work out I should be fine...hopefully...maybe.

Rynleigh · September 2012

ChristyPooP:
malloryjk:
oh wow youre all making me feel alot better! thank you!!!

I am leavbing work to go buy all the cocoa butter and vitamin that CVS has to offer!!

side note: are stretchmarks really genetic? I only have a sprinkle of them..(on like the side of my tush) from rapid growth spurts ...yes i was that awkward gawky 5'9 12 year old. But my mom and sister are pretty much in the clear as far as strecthmarks go. I'm hoping that as long as I gain weight gradually and eat healthy and work out I should be fine...hopefully...maybe.
Yes and no. The consensus is that if the ladies in your family got them, especially your mother, then you too will get them. My mom was riddled with them when she was pregnant with me. When I had DD, I had two little stretchmarks on the lower half of my belly that were pencil tip thin and about an inch long. I also had one on the outside of each boob (same size as the belly ones). Mine were a very faint white, my mom's were all purple. I gained weight VERY gradually though because I was so sick. My doctor told me that was probably why I didn't get them very bad.

All of this. Basically, the genetic part has to do with how much elastin you have in your skin. The rest of it has to do with how *quickly* you put on weight, and how large you end up getting. Keeping up your good oils and hydration can help with your natural elasticity, but they won't prevent them if you just plain grow too fast or too large. Be healthy and remember that most topicals you use are for the sake of keeping your skin hydrated to avoid itchiness and and overall skin irritation more than they are to prevent stretch marks.

With DD # 1 I had zero stretch marks up until month 8 - I had been carrying her very high (literally inside of my rib cage) nearly that whole time. She dropped in the middle of month 8, and I had blaring red stretch marks within a week. They eventually healed into the faint silvery-white marks over time, but it was that sudden change in pressure/size that caused them, for sure. With DD # 2 I never got any bigger than I had with # 1, and I didn't get any new marks.

montgomeryk10 · September 2012

I have a daisy on my left hip. It looks pretty normal (less a stretch mark or two) now but while I was pregnany my DH used to tease me that my daisy became a sunflower. Lol...I am guessing it will do the same this time.

pinottoparenthood · September 2012

I have one tattoo on my hip, just over my hipbone, and I've been worrying about this too! I know it will stretch out during the pregnancy, but will it go back to its original state afterwards? I hope it doesn't look like ***!

pinottoparenthood · September 2012

malloryjk:
*sigh* when I got them..i remember my mother and sister saying "those are going to look horrible when you have kids one day"...and in my teenage wisdom i replid "eww kids are disgusting..why would iever have kids"...

now i can only imagine my mother cackling "i told you so"

hahahaha... ohh, I hate how our mothers were always right.

sherina825 · September 2012

I have 6 but I made a conscious decision not to get them on places that wouldn't be affected by pregnancy. With that being said, I do have one I my hip/ thigh area and one on my bikini line. Neither look any different after my first daughter. I will say to moisturize A LOT. After every shower and if you sleep on cotton sheets, when you wake up in the morning. Raw, natural Shea butter is the best I've found. But there are some great lotions on the market.

AFBTB · September 2012

I've got 2 tattoos, but I'm not any help. Before I got them I thought out where I was going to put them for a long time. I knew I wanted to become a mommy so I knew not to put it somewhere it would get ruined by pregnancy or old age. So my tattoos are on my shoulder and calf.

LadyTSimes · September 2012

In my youthful stupor, I got a baby jaguar tattoo on my stomach. It was my college mascot. As I grew, it grew. Fortunately, I didn't have any stretch marks. My doctor was very considerate too. He made the incision for my C-section so that it did not disturb the tattoo. It never went back to the original size though. So I just tell people it was a grown jaguar. Just hoping it doesn't grow to much more with this pregnancy. I just put cocoa butter on my stomach everyday and I guess it helped.

AshleyEric609 · September 2012

I have 9 tattoos. Arms, back, legs, feet and hip. All survived 2 pregnancies.

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